i^6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



so that they are very difficult to catch or even 

 to see. 



The following is M. Lichtenstein's diagnosis of the 

 known forms : 



I. Pseudogyne Jiindatrix. — Brown-black, the body 

 oval, rounded, with a brilliant mother-of-pearl fringe ; 

 antennae four jointed, of which the second is the 

 shortest, and the third the longest ; two little conical 

 and pointed horns between the antennae and under 

 the face. 



II. Emigrant (or at least the form succeeding the 

 Foundress) resembling this form exactly, except that 

 it is of a clearer colour, and the antennae have five 

 articulations. 



III. Pupiferous form. — Winged. Antennne of five 

 joints, all finely ringed, wings flat on the back. The 

 superior present the nervures of the genera Schizo- 

 neura and Vacuna ; that is to say,, the third cubital is 

 forked at the extremity. It is by analogy with what 

 takes place with the Phylloxera that I call this 

 winged form pupiferous, for I have not been able to 

 obtain the egg, and do not know if it will give me, as 

 I reckon, males and females. 



Mr. Buckton's measurements are — 



Aptcrotts female. 



Inch. Millimetres. 



Sizeofbody . . . cro6oxcro5o i - 52Xi - 27 

 Antenna; .... coio C025 



I 'iv'parous winged female. 



Expanse of Wings . o - 160 4" 06 



Sizeofbody . . . crojooxcrc^o i - 77Xi'oi 



Antennae .... CV035 O'SS 



I must express my obligations to this gentleman 

 for the kind permission accorded me, to make figures 

 from his plate in order to illustrate this article. 



FURTHER NOTES ON ORCHIS MASCULA. 



I AM much obliged to your correspondents for 

 the notice they have taken of my papers. 

 Fortunately their questions can be answered. 



First of all, Mr. Scott will have observed, if he has 

 been kind enough to read p. 53 again, that it was 

 nowhere stated that the common orchis bore no 

 pollen, but merely that it was not fertilised in the 

 ordinary way ; by which I meant, as Mr. Lett has 

 already pointed out on p. 11S, that the usual method 

 of dusting loose pollen-grains on to the bodies of 

 insects was not employed in this particular instance. 

 Since April, I have succeeded in making many 

 drawings of pollinia, and if Mr. Scott would care to 

 see them, I could easily furnish him with some copies. 

 I may add, moreover, that the pollinia of those 

 species of orchis which are fertilised by bees, viz. 

 O. mascula, O. morio, O. maculata, O. latifolia, 

 0. incarnata, O. militaris, and also Gymnadenia 

 conopsea, have their pollen-masses of a soft sea-green 



colour mounted on a yellow filament, whereas the 

 pollinia of those species which are either self-fertilised, 

 or fertilised by flies or moths, viz. 0. mascula and 

 O. morio [white), Bee, Fly, Spider and Frog, are en- 

 tirely yellow, pollen mass, filament and all, so that 

 it is possible to decide at a glance to which of these 

 two classes the pollinia belong. I think this fact 

 sufficiently curious to deserve notice, as it may, 

 perhaps, throw some light on the white varieties of 

 Orchis. Nor is this all, for the pollinia of the spider, 

 fly, and bee ophrys have elbows in their filaments, 

 an arrangement superbly suited to that forward 

 depression, which, without the aid of insects, causes 

 self-fertilisation. The pollinium of the frog orchis, 

 however, has a straight filament. 



On May 6, at 9.30 a.m., while the morning was 

 soft and cloudy, the musical hum of wings outside the 

 window attracted my attention, and I had the satis- 

 faction of observing a large black-velvet humble-bee 

 on a tall spike of 0. mascula, with five pollinia 

 attached to its forehead. Watch that bee I did, with 

 feelings of profound peace and delight. I watched 

 it crawling spirally up the spike, and I noticed that it 

 remained longer on some flowers than on others. 

 After a short visit, it passed over some bluebells and 

 marigolds which were close by, and just looked at 

 half-a-dozen plants of 0. morio in full flower, but it 

 did not settle. A second visit was then paid to the 

 O. mascula, and rather a clumsy visit it was too, for 

 the bee alighted on the same flower again, and seemed 

 somewhat annoyed or tired, and it was only by peer- 

 ing intently that I saw it was trying to wipe off the 

 pollinia with its forelegs. I was deeply interested, as 

 this was precisely the reverse of what I had witnessed 

 on April 23rd, 1SS1 (p. 76), and I longed to go out 

 and pursue science, but the church bells were ringing, 

 and the only weapon at hand was a Sunday hat, so 

 the bee escaped. 



Next, your correspondent, E. L. R. (p. 143), has 

 asked for an explanation of the remark about bees 

 and cats, and Mr. Ullyett and Mr. Gibbins have 

 both given the answer. I thought, when I made the 

 statement, that it would be superfluous to say more., 

 but the passage, of course, to which I alluded is in 

 Darwin's "Origin of Species," 5th ed. 1S69, pp. 

 S4-S6, and is as follows : "I am tempted to give one 

 more instance showing how plants and animals, most 

 remote in the scale of nature, are bound together by a 

 web of complex relations. One hundred heads of red 

 clover (Trifolium pratense) produced two thousand 

 seven hundred seeds, but the same number of pro- 

 tected heads produced not a single seed. Humble- 

 bees alone visit red clover, as other bees cannot reach 

 the nectar. Hence we may infer, as highly probable, 

 that if the whole genus of humble-bees became 

 extinct, or very rare in England, the red clover 

 would become very rare or wholly disappear. The 

 number of humble-bees in a district depends in a 

 great degree on the number of field mice, which 



